Robert Latham Owen

Robert Latham Owen (2 February 1856-19 July 1947) was a US Senator from Oklahoma (D) from 11 December 1907 to 4 March 1925, preceding William B. Pine.

Biography
Robert Latham Owen was born in Lynchburg, Virginia in 1856, the son of a railroad company president and a mother of partial Cherokee descent. His family was ruined financially by the Panic of 1873 and his father died while Owen was still in his teens, leading to Owen heading to the Indian Territory to work with Cherokee orphans as a schoolteacher. He became a lawyer, administrator, journalist, Indian agent, and the founder and president of a community bank, bringing him to wider public notice. From 1907 to 1925, he served in the US Senate as a Democratic Party member, and he was active in progressive causes such as strengthening public control of government and fighting against child labor. He sponsored the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, and he held deflationary policies responsible for the Great Depression. He left the Senate in 1925, and he died in 1947.